Ever wondered why you buy Airpods when you buy an iPhone?
Welcome to the Diderot Effect.
Background:
French philosopher, Denis Diderot lived in poverty.
He was co-founder and writer of Encyclopédia. He was to marry off his daughter but could not afford a dowry. Catherine the Great, Russian Empress, heard of the problem and offered to buy his library for £1000 GBP ($50,000 USD, 2015)
Diderot married off his daughter and suddenly found himself flush with money. So he acquired a new scarlet robe. That's when everything went wrong.
The Effect:
Diderot’s scarlet robe was beautiful. His common possessions now seemed out of place. “No more coordination, no more unity, no more beauty” were his words. He soon felt the urge to buy some new things to match the beauty of his robe.
These reactive purchases have become known as the Diderot Effect. It states: Obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. We end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.
Life has a natural tendency to become filled with more. We are rarely looking to downgrade, simplify, eliminate, to reduce. The natural inclination is always to accumulate, add, upgrade, and build upon.
How to avoid this trap?
Reduce exposure: Avoid the habit triggers that cause it in the first place. Meet friends at the park rather than at the mall. Remove phone apps of your favourite shopping websites, and choose paid subscriptions to applications so that you are not served advertisements.
Buy items that fit your current system.
Set self-imposed limits: Live a carefully constrained life by creating limitations to operate within. School uniforms, similar bags, and two toffees to be distributed on birthdays in school for kids are some examples which come to my mind.
Buy One, Give One. Each time you make a new purchase, give something away. Get a new TV? Give your old one away rather than moving it to another room.
Go one month without buying something new. The more we restrict ourselves, the more resourceful we become.
In Diderot's words,
“Let my example teach you a lesson. Poverty has its freedoms; opulence has its obstacles.”- Diderot
Cheers!
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